The regular season is at an end for Panther volleyball.
After their thrilling win over West Henderson to secure a Mountain Seven Conference title Oct. 5, Franklin had just one match remaining in the regular season. In a 3-1 win over Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School Oct. 9, Bekah Brooks’ team stayed sharp ahead of the M7C Tournament this week.
“They were very competitive, and it was a great, great atmosphere,” said Brooks of the team’s trip to Georgia. “We fell in the first set there – we did not pass very well, but we picked up the pace a little bit and won the next three. We took care of business and finished out the first chapter of our book, as we’ve been calling it, so that was a lot of fun.”
In a rematch of their 3-0 home win Sept. 14, the Panthers lost the first set narrowly 25-22. After talking things over with Brooks and assistants Cindy Christie and Alex Buchanan however, Franklin looked like a different team the rest of the way, claiming the final three sets 25-16, 25-22, 25-13.
Junior outside/opposite hitter Cali Queen led all Panthers with 19 kills in the match, followed by senior middle/opposite hitter Jocelyn Rios with 10.
On defense, junior McKayla Sanders led the team with 19 digs, while McCall Sanders led the team offensively with 19 assists. Junior Ryan Green led all Panthers at the net with 11 blocks.
As regular-season champions, Franklin enjoyed a bye in the first round of the conference tournament Oct. 12, and had the luxury of an extra few days of practice for the semifinals Oct. 16.
“We practiced some, did some different things this week and gave them a day off,” said Brooks of preparing for the semis. “We went and did some silly dress-ups for the [Panther men’s soccer match versus Pisgah Oct. 11] since they’ve supported us, and just had some good times with the team, because that’s what it’s about. Then, we found out that Smoky Mountain beat Pisgah last night, so we’ll play them on Monday at Smoky.”
In a 3-2 upset of the fourth-place Black Bears on Pisgah’s home court in Round 1, the fifth-place Mustangs earned the right to return to their own gym for the semifinals. After twice beating the tournament hosts 3-0 in the regular season, Brooks expressed optimism about her team’s chances in the semis, but said they’d need to have strong fundamentals to do so.
“It goes back to passing. Passing is going to be the ultimate key in this game,” she said. “Both of their middle [hitters] are pretty good, so we’ll have to take care of them, but we’re basically worried about us – what can we do to better ourselves? Keeping our serves in, being very picky about the serves that we make, and just taking care of Franklin – that’s the key.”
As tournament hosts, Smoky had their home fans on hand for the semifinal after press time Monday night. The match kicked off a jam-packed three days of tournament action, including the JV semifinals Tuesday night and both JV and varsity finals on Wednesday.
Following a stellar regular season in which they compiled a 20-1 record, Christie’s JV Panthers also met Smoky Mountain in their own semifinal Tuesday. The JV Mustangs entered the match with an 8-12 overall record including a 6-6 mark in the conference. The Press will report on those matches’ results in next week’s edition.